


Princess Wyvern

by Kagetsukai



Series: We're not in Kansas anymore [9]
Category: Dragon Age, Dragon Age (Video Games), Dragon Age: Inquisition
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fairy Tale, F/M, Graphic Description
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-17
Updated: 2018-02-17
Packaged: 2019-03-20 12:40:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,510
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13717878
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kagetsukai/pseuds/Kagetsukai
Summary: Here is a retelling of an old Norwegian fairy tale calledPrince Lindworm, but with a Dragon Age twist and starring our favorite Commander.





	Princess Wyvern

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Star_Nymph](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Star_Nymph/gifts).



> This is a (belated) birthday present to one of my favorite people in the world, Star Nymph :D This story follows the fairy tale rather closely, until it doesn't. The longer I wrote it, the more creative license I took with it, so please don't murder me for it. That being said, enjoy!!

Once upon a time, in a land beyond the Waking Sea, there lived an elven king and queen named Lycus and Isen. They were a beautiful pair, blessed with good looks, good fortune, and respect of their people. And while their lives may have seemed perfect, they did lack one thing: a child. For countless years they tried and tried to conceive, but to no avail, and as the years passed, their despair only grew.

One day Queen Isen decided to take a long walk in the nearby woods, wishing to spend some time alone to ponder her childless existence. Lost in thought, she happened upon an old woman she did not recognize, all dressed in dark red cloth with hair white as snow.

“You look sad, my child,” said the woman. “What’s wrong?”

“There is no use telling you,” Isen replied. “There is nothing you can do to help me.”

“Try me,” the woman drawled.

The Queen understood in that moment that she was speaking with a witch, so she sagged against a tree and sighed in sadness.

“The short of it is, the King and I are childless. We have no heir to succeed us nor a child to warm our aging hearts. It’s hopeless.”

The old woman crossed her hands across her chest and smirked.

“No such thing, my child, if you do as follows” she said casually. “Return home and at sunset, take a chalice with two handles and place it in the northwest side of the garden, upside down. Then at dawn, lift the cup; you will find two roses there: a red one and a white one. If you wish to have a girl, eat the white rose, but if it’s a boy you desire, eat the red rose.”

And before Isen could thank the witch for the good news, the old woman lifted a finger to stop her.

“Beware of greed!” she announced in a booming voice. “For if you consume both roses, most horrendous thing will happen and you will forever be sorry.”

The Queen, ripe with joy and hope, thanked the witch for her blessing and rushed home to do as prescribed. She found a glorious silver chalice, placed it in the corner of the garden at sunset, and waited sleeplessly until sunrise. Once the first rays of light tickled the horizon, she ran outside and lifted the cup to find two beautiful roses underneath.

She thought long and hard on which of the roses she wanted to eat. If she had a boy, he would leave her sooner or later to become a hunter, a warrior, a man who would be strong but not there at all. Yet if she had a girl, she would grow into a princess that would want to get married and leave her as well. The choice was difficult, but Isen finally reached for the white rose and ate it. The petals were so silky and smooth, the flavor so divine, that the Queen momentarily forgot about the witch’s warning and ate the red rose as well.

And so came to pass that Queen Isen became pregnant and the kingdom was overjoyed. The royal pair looked forward to the birth of their child, but when the time came, the King got called away on an urgent matter of the state. The Queen gave birth not to one child, but two, and she cried out in horror when she saw an unnaturally pale skin of a wyvern come out first. When the second child came though, she breathed a sigh of relief, because it was a normal, beautiful baby girl. 

“The King must never know!” she decreed and she ordered the wyvern child be tossed out the window.

Many years passed and the horror of that night faded from Isen’s memory. Her daughter Melia grew into a beautiful young woman who was the joy and pride of her parents. She was perfection in every way! And once the girl reached adulthood, the King and Queen decided it was time to start a search for a husband, to marry their precious daughter and help them rule their domain.

So the word was sent out and many princes from neighboring kingdoms came to look at the princess and vie for her hand. None of them ever got to the castle, because a great pale wyvern would stop any caravan and destroy it to pieces. As everybody ran for their lives, they could hear a rasping voice, calling out “A groom for me before a groom for her!”

Thus the greatest nightmare came to pass and the Queen tearfully admitted to the King what she had done. Appalled at first, he then tried sending multiple hunters to kill the wyvern; alas. it always came out victorious. Not willing to lose any more people to this monster, he finally agreed to find a husband for the wyvern.

A missive was sent out again, cleverly omitting which princess was to be married, and once more a multitude of replies came, offering their princes as grooms. When the first man arrived at the castle, he was not allowed to see his bride until the wedding, and the lo and behold, it was the wyvern. He tried to back out, but the King and Queen didn’t let him; they promised that if he managed to spend the night with the wyvern, he would be rewarded beyond compare. He agreed and married the wyvern.

In the morning, the King and Queen entered the chambers, only to see the wyvern alone, traces of blood everywhere that clearly indicated the prince had been eaten. Big purple eyes opened, gazed deeply into Lycus’ eyes, and a rasping voice announced “A groom for me before a groom for her.”

Two more times they sent for a prince and two more times the same thing happened: the wyvern would marry and eat the man, and in the morning demand that it be given another groom. The news of the monster finally got out of the castle and no more kingdoms were willing to send a prince to marry a wyvern. King Lycus used all of his influence and all of his carefully crafted diplomatic agreements, but nobody wanted to send their child to a certain doom. Soon all of their allies retreated and the kingdom fell on hard times. And still, the wyvern would not be appeased, demanding a groom before Princess Melia could marry.

The tales of their misfortune traveled far and wide, so it did not surprise them that one day a man, a human, showed up on their doorstep, demanding an audience with the King. Resigned to their fate, they granted his request and let him inside. Their guest was different from what they were used to, tall and broad and golden everywhere. His armor was gilded with symbols unknown in their culture and shone in sunlight like a beacon.

“I will marry your wyvern princess,” he announced in his deeply Fereldan accent.

Even at the edge of despair, King Lycus cared greatly for the reputation of his family.

“You are a human,” he stated. “Why should I let you marry someone of noble Dalish blood?”

Amber eyes sharpened into a steely glint and the warrior narrowed his eyes.

“I am not unknown in my lands, King Lycus, for I am General Cullen Rutherford” he announced. “And I know for a fact that you will let me marry your wyvern daughter, because no other man has been willing thus far.”

Faced so rudely with cold, hard facts, the King and the Queen had no other choice but to allow this human to marry the wyvern princess. The ceremony was small, barely anybody showed up to witness it, and many lamented the imminent loss of such a handsome man. For his part, Cullen didn’t flinch when the wyvern came to stand beside him and he didn’t shy away when his newlywed chambers where shown to him.

For he had a plan for how he would deal with the wyvern. Back home, he had come across a witch named Morrigan, who explained to him how to tame the wyvern and defeat the curse on the elven kingdom. As per her advice, he had requested a barrel of lye, a tub of milk, and a variety of whips be put in the bedroom, then he dressed in ten white shirts before putting on his groom garb.

Once alone with the wyvern, it raised onto its dreadful claws and spoke in a terrible hiss.

“Handsome lad, shed your shirt.”

Cullen was terrified down to his bones, but did not let fear show on his face. He stared the wyvern in its purple eyes and demanded, “Princess Wyvern, slough a skin!”

Whatever the monster had expected, it clearly wasn’t that. It paused in its idle movement, weighing his words.

“No one has ever dared to demand that before.”

“But I demand it now,” replied Cullen.

After a brief pause, he watched as the wyvern twisted and coiled and shifted, and the skin came off in a ghastly display that made his stomach churn. In turn, while the wyvern stared at him with inscrutable eyes, he took off one of his shirts and tossed it on top of the discarded pale scales.

“Handsome lad, shed your shirt!” it demanded again, clearly impatient.

“Princess Wyvern, slough your skin!” he replied with equal force.

And the process repeated over and over again, until Cullen was down to his last shirt. At this point, the wyvern no longer looked like a wyvern; instead, it was a mass of muscles and veins and blood, and it breathed heavily in deep, rattling huffs. Satisfied that he’d done the first part right, Cullen grabbed the various whips, dipped them in lye, and proceeded to whip the wyvern as hard as he could. The sounds of pain and agony that came from its mouth tore at his heart and made him want to stop, but he didn’t. He continued until there was nothing more than a bloody mess on the stony floor.

Carefully, and with great gentleness, he heaved the creature into his arms and brought it over to the tub of milk. He bathed it then, making sure that every bit of blood and grime washed off completely. Done with the chore, he lifted the battered wyvern out of the tub and placed it in the big, feathery bed. And just like the witch had told him, Cullen climbed in as well, placed his arms around the bruised flesh and started singing.

Now, he didn’t really prepare just what he was going to sing - he could barely believe that he had survived this long - so he started at the beginning of the Chant of Light and carried on until his voice went hoarse and quiet, and he couldn’t anymore. Thankfully, the wyvern had fallen asleep and while it scared him to do so, Cullen settled himself more comfortably and followed suit.

The morning came quietly. The King and the Queen opened the door to the bedchambers, fully expecting the man to had died, and gasped at what they saw: a room full of discarded scales mingled with white shirts, generous smears of blood ran everywhere, whips still dripped with lye, and a tub of milk stood in the corner, the liquid murky and vaguely pink. At the center of it all sat the grand bed and in it lay the golden man with a beautiful, frail-looking woman in his arms.

Shocked gasps and shouts of alarms woke up Cullen to the fact that he no longer held a wyvern, but a woman of considerable beauty. She was small and fragile, much more than other elven women he’d known, but it did not bother him. As she stirred to wakefulness, he watched as pale eyelids cracked open and the most beautiful amethyst eyes stared back at him, inquisitive and measuring.

“You’ve lifted my curse,” she said and slid her gaze away.

“Yes, I have,” he replied, his voice still gruff from the night before.

She tried to shift away from him. “You are now stuck with me.”

“Not the worst fate I could think of,” he pointed out. He pulled her closer into his arms and she let him. “After all, I married a princess who turned out to be the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen.”

A small smile bloomed on her face, even while she still wouldn’t meet his eyes.

“You haven’t seen many women, then.”

His eyes softened as he gazed at her pale face, taking it all in. He gently cupped her face and lifted it up, to meet his eyes.

“I have seen enough and I have no need for more.”

They kissed then, sweet and tender and fond, and while they didn’t love each other yet, they knew they would grow into it.

This is the point where a fairy tale would end with ‘and they lived happily ever after’, but this is not such a story. 

While the King and the Queen were grateful to Cullen for lifting the curse on their older daughter, they did not grow fonder of him. They kept trying to get him to leave, return to his own lands, while they locked away their not-wyvern daughter. For she was not what they had expected, having spent all of her life locked in a body of a vicious monster. She hated being touched by random strangers, she wouldn’t look people in the eye, and she would bluntly tell others what was on her mind. And while she was still beautiful, King Lycus preferred to keep her away from the public eyes. 

In the end, it was the brave general who once more came to her rescue and helped her run away from her cruel father. They traveled far, far away, until they were certain nobody could find them, and settled in a small hut by the forest, cultivating plants and raising stock until a very old age.

The End

===========================

Cullen closed the book and looked up at the faces of his enraptured children.

“Alright rugrats, sleep time,” he announced and moved to get up from his chair.

“Daddy, daddy! Was that story true? Was mamae really a wyvern?” asked one of them.

Cullen paused. The fairy tale was a gift from Varric one of the previous years, a silly collection of stories that featured Cullen and Eurydice in a variety of fairy tales that their children loved listening to at bedtime. While most of it was pure fiction, elements of them still rang true and hurt to think about.

Like Lycus’ treatment of Eurydice, to begin with.

“Of course not,” he said quietly. “This is just a story written by Uncle Varric, you know this, Psyche.”

The girl looked disappointed, but no less thrilled to fantasize about it further once he had gone. As Cullen got up and turned to leave, he once again vowed to love all of his children to the fullest capacity of his heart.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading! Kudos and comments are MUCH appreciated :D If you want to chat about things, I spend an inordinate amount of time on [Tumblr](https://kagetsukai.tumblr.com).


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